A Glimpse of the Future
by Link015
Summary: He wanted to be able to see the future. That way, he could be ready for any surprises that could endanger the lives of his army. One ritual and drunken haze later, where does our venerable tactician find himself? In the future. 20 years into the future.


Chris: Here's a weird little fic I thought up while bored and in class. I thought it'd be a little fun and interesting to write up, so here it is. Welp, I hope you enjoy it. There's not much more I can really say about it.

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**A Glimpse of the Future**

Theodore Hart stood in front of the fortune teller's tent, wondering why exactly he was here. Sure, Hannah was good when it came to learning about minor hints about the battle ahead, but she was creepy. But his curiosity had finally pushed him to this point and he stepped inside the star-specked tent bravely, pushing back the twin curtains. Incense assaulted his nose and he nearly gagged, unused to the sweet scent.

"Hee hee hee…Well what brings you here today, sir Tactician?"

Hannah's cackling voice brought his attention to the aged woman. Her dark-blue cloak covered her body from sight save her face, which was lined with wrinkles. She reached out with a hand, beckoning him to the seat across from her. Theo walked up nervously, pulling back the old, rickety chair and gingerly sitting on it. He fiddled with his fingers, looking around the tent as he tried to think of a good way to say his request.

It was almost pitch black and the only light came from a pair of candles. The candles rested a single table in the center of the room and a clear crystal ball lay between them. There was a single locked chest lying in one corner, decorated with runes and symbols that one would normally find in magic tomes. All in all, the tent was cold, dark, and carried the perfect feel for the world of mystery and magic.

"I know you said you couldn't do that much, but I was hoping that you could somehow tell me what our future battles would be like. Nothing like those 'You should put someone there and bring these sorts of fighters' auguries I normally ask for, but something way more in-depth. Like…actual scenes of the future. Who we'll be meeting next…if there are any other surprises we should watch out for, stuff like that." He explained. "I know I don't know anything about fortune telling, but I was curious to see if this was possible."

Hannah laughed. "I knew what you would be here to ask this someday. That's why I prepared…and found a spell that would do exactly what you want. It'll take a while, however, which is why I have never attempted to cast it. We are always on the move and causing havoc for my poor bones."

Theo looked guilty for a moment. "Sorry. I didn't want to push you…You're already providing us with a valuable service."

"And you better be thankful!"

"Trust me, I am." He gave the fortune teller a weak smile. "So, how long will it take?"

"At least a day. Including preparations."

"Mmm…Okay, then let's try it. I'll help you set up. What do I need to do? Buy some wizard robes and a hat or something? Maybe some magic tomes or weapons? Items or mines?"

"I have to take care of the preparations myself. I don't trust anyone else with them, even you, Theo." Hannah said, looking serious. "Just make sure no one disturbs me for the rest of the day and tomorrow. Come in two days."

"Will do." Theo got out of his seat and bowed quickly to the old woman. He left the tent, releasing a long sigh. The army had a more than enough time for a break, actually. They had just arrived in the mainland of Elibe after retreating from Dread Isle. Eliwood was still crushed after the death of his father and he had called for at least a week break so that the army could recuperate and regain their morale.

In fact, that disaster was the main reason he had asked Hannah about seeing the future. If he had known about Lord Elbert's death. If only he had known what Nergal was planning. If only he had known about Rachel…and how he could have prevented her death. If only, if only…

A brief tap on the shoulder jolted him out of his reverie and he jumped. He heard a small chuckle as he spun and he had to stop himself from reflexively trying to strange the person who had surprised him. He hated being surprised. It was right up there on his list of things to avoid along with defeat and peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.

"You nearly frightened the wits out of me." Theo said irritably as he looked at his antagonist, one grinning, sneaky, and cunning thief named Matthew. "What do you want? This isn't another prank, is it? I know you're upset about Leila but…"

A brief flicker of pain crossed Matthew's eyes but he shrugged it away. "No…I'm done with my grief. It still hurts, but it'll hurt forever. Right now, all I can do is just do my job as well as I can. Speaking of which," Here his eyes brightened and he smiled, "I just overheard something very interesting, Theo! What was this about trying to see the future?"

"Matthew…" The tactician's eyes narrowed. "You weren't spying on me, were you?"

"Spying on you? Our venerable tactician? Perish the thought! No, I was just taking a walk when I heard your voice from Hannah's tent. Since there isn't a battle coming up and my second guess as for why you were in her tent was just way too hideous to think about for long, I just had to see! So I…just dropped something and had to pick it up. That's all."

"Uh…huh." Theo shook his head in annoyance. "Well, you really are just doing your job. Even if it is annoying as hell…"

"That I am! So, tell me…do you think whatever Hannah is doing will work? This whole seeing the future thing. It'd certainly be interesting if it did, that's for sure. But honestly, speaking from a logical perspective…this is a load of horseshit." He said, shaking his head ruefully. "I'm not going to mince words here, Theo, but I don't think this is going to work. If someone could see the future, why haven't people abused this power yet? Well, I really shouldn't complain. If people could see the future, they wouldn't need spies as much!"

"And we wouldn't want that, would we?" Theo replied sarcastically.

"You wound me, sir tactician!" Matthew said in mock horror, a hand placed over his heart. "You know that I have been your faithful servant throughout all these days and months! Surely there is no reason to doubt my loyalty!"

"Yes, yes, stuff it." Theo replied with a sigh, waving him off. "Just keep yourself out of trouble. I have some things I need to work on."

"Of course, sir." He bowed. When he straightened, there was an understanding look on his face. "I'm sorry about Rachel."

"…Yeah, thanks." Theo cracked a small grin before heading back into his tent. He lay on his cot, staring upwards as he reflected on the past couple of days. The whole Dread Isle campaign could be described as a failure, at least in his book. Sure, they did deal justice to Darin and delayed Nergal's plans. And their only two losses really were Leila and Lord Elbert. But they shouldn't have died. He had learned ever since he was young that losses were never acceptable.

And then there was Rachel. She was a pegasus knight from Ilia, hired by Nergal to support Aion and delay their progress. It was a useless gesture since it turned out that he had hired them so they could die and provide him with quintessence. She somehow managed to survive and after a series of events, she became one of their prisoners. Unfortunately…she had died in the final stages of the assault on Nergal. He had managed to recover her corpse to send back to her homeland, but he wished he didn't need to. But there really was no point in moping about it now. Matthew was right. He needed to do his best.

As he closed his eyes to take a nap, a quick thought crossed his mind. Even if he knew what the future held, did he have enough power to make things right? A small smile crossed his face.

'_I'll worry about it when the time comes.'_

_­--_­_-_

"Are you ready for the ritual? I want you to stare at the crystal ball as hard as you can and concentrate deeply on the future." Hannah's cracked voice floated around the dark tent. Theo nodded, sitting in the same chair as last time. The air was thick with the smell of burning incense and candle wax. A giant magic rune had been inscribed on the ground and the table as well and as the tactician watched, Hannah sprinkled some grayish-white powder around the crystal ball. She tossed the remainder of the powder into the air before sitting back down. "Then let us begin."

The next hour or so passed by in a blur. Hannah's voice droned in his ears as he stared at the crystal ball, waiting for something to happen. Runes glowed and magic burst all around the tent as the ritual continued and the air grew heavy with sweet, sickly smells. It was almost as if he was locked into his position, unable to move lest he disturb some important part of the ritual. But after the ritual was done, nothing had happened. There was no flash of insight, no vision of the future to help guide his way. Just fogginess in his head and the feeling that his limbs were made of metal.

He shook his head to try to clear the cobwebs, nearly toppling from his seat. "I guess….I guess it didn't work?"

"It appears not…I'm sorry, Theodore." Hannah said apologetically, putting out the candles.

"No, it's okay…it was a longshot anyway." Theo said with a wan smile as he stood. He tried to bow to the fortune teller, but nearly pitched forward onto the ground. Thinking better of the idea, he just gave Hannah a wave as he made his way out of the tent. "Whoa…I feel weird…I better sleep this off."

As he headed back to his tent, he tripped over something and nearly fell to the ground. With a curse, he turned and kicked at the non-existent rock that was the source of all his problems. He laughed as he did so. "Take that, you damn rock! That'll teach you to place yourself in my great presence!"

Everything seemed so funny to him at the moment. Nergal, dragons, the whole army, even that single weird multi-colored bird that was spinning in the air and talking to him in some strange, beautiful language. He laughed again before tripping over another rock and landing face first onto the ground.

'_It's a conspiracy! A conspiracy to keep me off my feet! Those rocks! They're going to take over the world!'_ Turning onto his back, he giggled and promptly fell unconscious.

_---_

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that he had apparently decided to get roaring drunk cause tiny little people were banging hammers on his skull. The second thing was that someone had made the sun too bright. The third thing was that he was no longer in the camp. All this cumulated in a single thought that compressed everything he felt about this situation and placed it in a single curse word.

'_Fuck.'_

With a pained groan, he slowly got up to his feet and quickly assessed his situation. The results were not good at all. He was in unfamiliar territory, he had no supplies, his army had gone missing, and all he had on him were his clothes and his sword. And judging from the shouts that suddenly erupted from behind him, things were going to get worse.

He turned, hiding his sword from view with the help of his beloved tactician's cloak. Heading towards him were three…no, four, bandits. One of them hung in the back, a bow grasped in his hands while his partners came up closer to him. All of them held axes, their blades chipped and worn. Theo stood his ground, trying to hide his nervousness. He had only received basic sword lessons from Marcus and the others in the army and while he was competent enough to handle himself, he doubted he could take out four people just by himself.

"Gahahaha! What do we have here, boys? A lone traveler? I hope he doesn't plan on traveling these roads without buying some insurance, right? It wouldn't do for him to lose his life after an accident!" One of the bandits stepped up to Theo, clapping him heartily on the shoulder.

"Ahaha…" Theo tried to smile. "Yeah…t-that's right. I wouldn't want to get lost or anything….Speaking of lost, where am I?"

The bandit blinked at Theo several times before roaring with laughter. "Well boys, looks like we got a joker on his hands! Don't even know where he is! Well, since I'm such a nice guy, I'll tell you exactly where you are! You're in the lands of Caelin, my friend!"

'_Caelin? Caelin?! How the hell did I get here?!'_ Theo's blue eyes widened slightly. "Ahaha…t-thanks. Thanks my friend. Well then…I should get going. I have important business in Pherae, you know. Don't want to be late. You know how it is."

He quickly slipped out of the bandit's grasp and tried to leave, only to feel that heavy hand on his shoulder again. He turned, still trying to smile. "Is there…something else you wanted to talk about?"

"Your money, please. If you don't want to die, that is." The bandit said, showing off a wide smile with rotted teeth.

"Ah…hehe…Yeah…about that. I…don't have any with me?" He tried to laugh. It was true. All of his gold he had kept stored in his tent since he wasn't expecting anything like this. And since his tent didn't come with him…well, right now he was dirt poor. "I hope you don't mind."

"A-Anyway…I guess I really should be going." He backed away slowly, watching the bandits carefully. He probably could have gotten away with that if it wasn't for a freak gust of wind which blew his cloak away and revealed the sword strapped to his waist. Immediately they were upon him again, one of them pointing his axe at his blade.

"Now where'd you git such a pretty weapon?"

"It's my father's. He would be upset if I were to lose it…"

"My heart cries out for you…but if you don't got the gold, then we'll be taking that sword of yours."

Theo took a step back, placing a hand on the hilt. "I'm not giving this sword to you. No way and no how."

"Then we'll just take it from your dead body! Boys, get 'im!"

And with that, Theo found himself in battle. He had experience in combat, but it certainly wasn't enough. To his credit, he had his sword out and ready in a flash. He quickly blocked one of the axes heading for his face and side-stepped another slash that ripped through his cloak. He spotted the third bandit trying to attack him from behind and he quickly fell to the side, slashing with his sword. He was rewarded with the sound of one of the bandits screaming in pain when an arrow thudded into his left shoulder.

'_Son of a-'_ He staggered back, wincing in pain. The bandits came at him again and he just barely blocked a killing blow. It was a good thing the arrow didn't hit his sword arm, but the pain was distracting him and he was finding it harder and harder to escape. His sword was knocked from his hand after a particularly powerful blow and another arrow hit him in the leg. He fell to the ground, trying to suppress a scream.

'_You've got to be kidding me…Why…why did this happen?'_ He thought to himself as he looked at the victorious grin on the bandit leader's face. Blood clouded his vision and he felt himself growing faint. The leader raised his axe to end Theo's life one and for all. But to Theo's surprise, the bandit suddenly lowered his weapon and began running away.

"Alan! Lance! Wolt! You know what to do! Marcus, watch for any of their allies! Elen, we'll need your healing magic!"

A familiar, but youthful voice entered Theo's ears and he strained to see who his savior was. Before he could, though, a gentle and comforting hand was placed on his chest and he looked up to see the concerned face of a brown-haired cleric. She gave him a reassuring smile as she held a healing staff above his wounds. Even as she did this, he could hear the thundering hooves of two horses as they charged past him. Judging from the bandits' screams, it seemed like they were doing a good job of cutting them down.

After a couple of minutes, the battle was finished and Theo's wounds were gone. He sat on the empty plains, taking in slow, deep breaths with that unknown healer at his side. He heard footsteps from behind him and he turned to see who their commander was. What he saw made his jaw drop and he immediately rose to his feet. Standing in front of him was the spitting image of Eliwood if Eliwood had been five or so years younger.

"Are you okay?" Young Eliwood looked at Theo with concern. "I'm sorry we didn't arrive sooner."

"N-No, it's okay. I'm just glad you're here at all. You saved my life!" Theo said, bowing to the young lord. "Would you mind telling me your name?"

"I'm Roy, son of the Marquess of Pherae." He said.

"Roy? Son of the Marquess? Who…Who would the Marquess be?" Theo blinked, a small pit of dread forming in his stomach as he thought of what the answer would be.

"Lord Eliwood."

Theo nearly fainted. _'Oh god…I'm in the future…that ritual! It sent me to the future! I didn't mean this far! Just…Just a month or two! Not years!'_

"Lord Roy, all of the bandits have been killed." A light-green haired cavalier in green armor rode up to the young lord and dismounted, his sword coated with a thin layer of blood. He looked at Theo, examining him up and down. He was quickly joined by another cavalier, this one sporting red hair and armor. Theo blinked several times at them, wondering if every country in Lycia liked to have a pair of cavaliers with green and red armor. It was disturbing.

"Ah, good work, Lance. Alan." Roy nodded to the two cavaliers. "And you two as well, Wolt and Marcus."

'_Marcus?!'_ Theo's head spun to look at the two newest arrivals, a young archer who reminded Theo eerily of Wil, and Marcus, who was…Marcus. Except much older. _'Well…I guess it would make sense for him to be here. He protected Eliwood so of course he would protect Eliwood's son. But he's so __**old**__ now.'_

Wolt nodded and smiled while Marcus just inclined his head gravely. The aged paladin then turned his sights on Theo and gave a small start. He slowly dismounted his horse and walked up to the young tactician, a frown on his face. "I'm sorry, but you remind me of someone I know. Would you mind telling us your name?"

"O-Of course! It's Theo. Short for Theodore."

"Ah…I once knew a Theodore. He was a marvelous tactician." Marcus nodded to himself, reliving past memories. "He helped lead Lord Eliwood's army to many a victory…It is unfortunate that he disappeared after the war was finished. You look just like he did so long ago…"

"Haha…really?" Theo laughed awkwardly. "Well…That's a coincidence. I'm a tactician as well…taught by the best!"

"Really? Perhaps it is fate." Roy interrupted, a small smile working its way on his face. "My father had a tactician named Theodore and maybe I can have the same. Where were you headed?"

"I…didn't really have a destination. I was just wandering."

"Really? Well then, Theo, I don't suppose you would mind lending your skills to help me in my fight." Roy said, extending a hand to the tactician. "We're currently heading to Bern to gauge the strength their invasion force and while I've been taught some basics of military strategy, it would be great to have a full-fledged tactician supporting me. You'll be paid, of course."

Theo took the hand and shook it, smiling. "Well…why not? I accept. It'll definitely be safer to travel with you. But wait, you said Bern was invading?"

"Yes. King Zephiel has already conquered most of Ilia and Sacae…and reports have come that he wants to take over Lycia as well. We have to stop him as quickly as possible, but the other Marquess' have been less than supporting." Roy explained, looking somber.

"I see…" Theo shook his head, confused. "That doesn't seem like…Well, I'll do what I can. Lead me to your army, Roy."

At this, the young lord turned red and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry…but what you're looking at is almost all you're going to get. I have a few more people back at camp, but we're definitely not what you could call an army."

"Oh boy…" Theo sighed, painfully reminded of the time when he had to lead Eliwood's small band against what seemed to be a whole horde of Black Fang members. He gave Roy a lopsided grin and shrugged. "Well, just because things aren't easy isn't a reason to give up. I'll just have to make due with what I have. From what I read, Eliwood's tactician didn't have a huge army to use either so maybe things'll turn out fine."

With that, the small group went back to join the rest of Roy's army and Theo was given his own tent along with a map of the area along with profiles on all the army members. He was surprised at how…similar Roy's group seemed to Eliwood's group, at least in function. It'd certainly make his planning a little easier. Finding out that Wolt was actually the son of Wil and Rebecca wasn't surprising at all, but he was a little afraid of what else he'd find.

'_Welp, this is it. I'm in the future, fighting with the sons and daughters of…well, the past. This is so…messed up. I guess I should make the best of this…but if I ever get back I'm going to torch that damn fortune telling book and laugh while it burns.'_

He paused in his thoughts before letting out a groan. _'Oh god what if I got married and had a son? What if he joins this army? Oh dear sweet St. Elimine, don't let that happen. Please, please don't let that happen. I'm begging you. What if I meet __**myself**__?! No! No more thinking about this! Time paradox thoughts are now strictly forbidden!'_

With that, he promptly went to his cot and fell asleep within minutes.

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Chris: Well, what'd you think of it? Hopefully it was good enough. I haven't played an English-translated version of FE 6 yet so I might get some characterizations wrong. I'm, of course, planning to fix that. But anyway, put whatever you think in a review or something so I'll know what to change/improve. Also, word of warning, I have no clue what direction I want this fic to go to. I don't want to make this a retelling of the FE 6 story. It'd just be easier to just play the game. The only real hook I have planned so far is "lol FE 7 tactician goes into the future" so...I might need to do more if I want to make this go on longer. Currently, I'm planning on ending it within a couple of chapters with some of the cooler battles/characters getting their own section. If there's someone you really want to see in this, tell me and I'll place 'em in.

Anyway, enough of that. I hope you enjoyed it and farewell until next time!


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